The present invention relates generally to an automobile device controller and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for using natural dialog to control operation of an automobile system, such as a navigation system.
In the field of operator controlled automobile systems and devices, the increasing use of technology has resulted in several useful, systems. For example, global positioning systems (GPS) in combination with road atlases stored in a database on the vehicle provide an intelligent navigation system for directing the driver. As another example, car audio systems integrate radio receivers, cassette tape decks, and single or multiple-disk compact disk players into a single system that often includes several modes of operation. Regardless of the vehicle system, such complex systems are generally operated by push button, remote control, or on-screen displays. Operation of such systems distract the vehicle operator from devoting full attention and concentration to safely operating the vehicle.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus for providing a natural dialog interface for a device installed on an automobile. The interface includes a speech recognizer, the speech recognizer recognizes input speech provided by a user. A speech understanding module connects to the speech recognizer. The speech understanding module determines semantic components of the input speech. A dialog manager connects to the speech understanding module. The dialog manager determines a condition of insufficient semantic information existing within the input speech based upon the determined semantic components and provides information to the user about the device in response to the input speech.